GUELPH — The city is inviting local skateboarders to help shape Guelph’s next skateboard park.

A design workshop will be held next Wednesday evening, offering skaters a chance to meet and share ideas with representatives of New Line Skateparks, the Vancouver-based firm selected to design and build the park.

“This is an opportunity for the designers to take prospective riders through the whole process,” said Adam Rutherford, the city’s youth services co-ordinator. “The workshop is really designed for skateboarders.”

Workshop participants will get a behind-the-scenes look at what goes in to designing world-class skateparks, and have a chance to share their views on what they would like to see or not see in Guelph’s facility.

Rutherford said design of a new skatepark is expected to be finalized next year, with the majority of construction and official opening slated for 2015. The city’s capital budget includes $700,000 for the project.

A skatepark was identified as a community need as far back as 1987. A facility opened on Deerpath Drive in 2008, but was removed the following year amid noise and vandalism concerns from nearby homeowners.

The city has been working since then to identify a new location for a park.

Rutherford said Silvercreek Park, near the beach volleyball courts, is the current favourite location, though it has not been finalized.

“Obviously there were a lot of issues with that location,” he said of Deerpath. “Whatever the final location (for the new park) it will be complementary and a lot more esthetically-pleasing.”

Unlike the previous skatepark – which had ramps simply bolted on to a flat surface – Rutherford said the new one will be a purpose-built concrete facility.

New Line Skateparks has built parks across Canada and in several US states, as well as in Sweden, Chile, Taiwan and Denmark. The company also designed the “Fantasy Factory,” a Los Angeles facility owned by skateboarding legend Rob Dyrdek and featured prominently on his MTV show.

Rutherford said the design workshop will run from 6 to 8 p.m. next Wednesday on a drop-in basis.

It will be held at the new Guelph Civic Museum, which is currently featured “kNOw Skateboarding,” an exhibit looking at the roots and evolution of skating.